Inkstained
by Christina1988
Summary: Dustfinger is dead. Resa is pregnant with Mo's child. You think that is a reason why they can't be together? You're wrong. Dustfinger x Resa. Set after Inkspell. AU.
1. Chapter 1

_Dustfinger is dead. Resa is pregnant with Mo's child. You think that is a reason why they can't be together? You're wrong. Dustfinger x Resa. Set after Inkspell. AU._

_I was soooo against starting a new FF that contained more than one chapter but I'm glad I still did it. I proved to myself that I could bring Resa and Dustfinger together although she was pregant with Mo's child. And that I could write a whole FanFic with more than 8000 words (8 chapters) in less than 24 hours. _

_I'll post a chapter every day and beat me in case I forget it._

_And note that English is not my first language ;) _

**Inkstained**

**Chapter 1**

Dustfinger was so far, so very far away. The boat he was standing in was drifting off and Resa thought that with every second the flood was taking him further away. She tried to call him back, tried so hard to scream his name but no words came out. If only Resa could stop crying but every single tear filled the ocean, made it rise. She would drown Dustfinger if she didn't find a way to stop it. Panic started to spread inside her, running with her blood through every vein. Her voice, she thought, must be able to save him. Why can't I scream? Her voice had been back, she was certain of that. Where had it gone again?

Resa stepped into the water. If it was not her speech that brought him back, it would be her hands. She tried to swim after him but she couldn't get deeper into the ocean than a few inches; a barrier, invisible, but unbreakable, stopped her and threw her back into the sand. She looked at Dustfinger again, looked into his calm face as he was disappearing. She stretched out her hand, screamed silently and watched him sink while tears continued to run.

A horrid scream filled the room when Resa woke up, covered in sweat and tears. A dream. It had been a dream. Dustfinger lives. Her voice was still back.

It took her a while to realize that she was lying in her bed, that the nightmare was over, that she was back in the real world. The ghosts of the night had left. Still. . . she felt strange. The pregnancy. She needed air. Now.

Resa got up and wrapped herself in the moth-eaten blanket that was lying next to her in her empty bed. And it really would be cold outside, she noticed right before she opened the front door. She could tell from the cold air coming in through the door gap. Mo had promised to repair that but he was out playing the Bluejay. Where was Meggie? It didn't matter. She opened the wooden door and almost stepped on something lying outside. Something? Someone!

Resa got down on her knees and removed the hood of the cape the man was wearing and a familiar scarred face, pale and dead, appeared. Dustfinger! She started shaking him, trying to wake him up. She called his name a dozen times but nothing happened. His eyes remained close, his heart refrained from beating. He was dead. Her voice was back but he was still not among the living. He would never be so again and when Resa realized that, the cold cheeks she was holding in her hands fell back to the ground. Tears started to fall again and finally. . . finally Resa woke up.

It was not cold outside, not at all, and Resa noticed with relief that she had at last escaped the clutches of her nightmare. It was almost morning, probably somewhere between four and five for the blueness she saw outside her window was the rare color the earth only had right before dawn. It had been like that in her story and it was the same here. She lay down again with no intention to go back to sleep. She would not stay in the world of her nightmare longer than she had to and it was the same every night. Not always the same dream, but the same topic, the same story wrapped in a new coat. Since Dustfinger had died Resa feared the same could happen to Mo, who was out every night fighting like Robin Hood in a name that Fenoglio had created for him: Bluejay. It was because she feared for Mo and for no other reason.

Why was it always Dustfinger? Because Resa had seen him dead, because the expression on his pale face would never leave her mind again. The image followed her like a shadow and it poisoned her thoughts.

Suddenly she heared the sound of hooves approaching and she could see the horse coming from the forest. It was Mo. The Bluejay. Coming back from a hard night's work. But he lived and that was all that counted. She let herself fall back into the pillows (Yes, being the wife of a bandit had its positive aspects, like owning a horse or a bed like a king). Resa closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep when Mo, the Bluejay entered the room and lay down next to her. Somehow she couldn't stop referring to him as that bloody bird in her head. This world had changed him more than she had thought it would. He had grown colder, a price one obviously pays for taking lives, innocent or guilty. But he was still her Mo, wasn't he? When they were sitting at the breakfast table, the whole family, was he not a good father? Was he not a loving husband when they went to bed and he felt her stomach, trying to get the moving of their unborn child, even though Resa had told him it didn't move yet? It was the nights he spent away from his family, the nights he went out stealing, fighting, killing. The nights she was alone with her fear and her nightmares. If only his warm hands comforted her when she had woken up from a bad dream again but probably those hands were carressing a sword, leading it to slaughter. Resa snuggled against Mo's back, longing for the smallest contact she could get. He always turned his back at her when he returned in the morning. At first she thought it was to hide his tears. Now, she knew, he did it to hide he was shedding no more tears at all.


	2. Chapter 2

_Next chapter like I promised._

**Chapter 2 **

Resa had finally stopped vomiting. She was tired of being sick every morning and decided to see Roxane later. She had told her about the remedies but nothing had helped her yet.

"Are you alright?" Mo asked when Resa came back into the house.

"Yes, just the usual sickness," she said and sat down at the breakfast table. Only the thought of food made the nausea return. She decided to have a glass of milk so that she wouldn't have to ride out on an empty stomach.

"Do you want me to accompany you?" he wanted to know and reached hungrily for another slice of bread, "Or Meggie?"

Meggie looked at him as if she was trying to say "No! I'll see Farid today!" but said nothing. She knew that her mother and the baby came before her teenage romance.

"That is a woman thing. I doubt you'll feel comfortable with the two of us talking about morning sickness and giving birth." Resa smiled at him. She was right, of course. Giving birth was a gruesome thing to imagine for every man.

"Actually," she began, "I was wondering if you cold make me another one of those small note books. I liked them."

"What? You've already filled the last one?" Mo laughed at how productive his wife was. He had made her three note books already and she obviously had filled all of them with writing.

_I just have a lot of things on my mind_, she wanted to say but didn't. Instead she laughed back and replied that somehow the fairies were really inspiring. She got her will and Mo promised to make her another book.

The way to Roxane was a long one and Resa didn't want to shoo the horse too much although she hated being alone. It left her only with her thoughts and they were haunted by the Bluejay's violent deeds and a dead Dustfinger. Resa found it both unbearable.

She had been alone once before when she had been sucked into the Inkworld for the first time. When Darius had read her out there had been Dustfinger to comfort her. Shortly after she had found Mo, Dustfinger had returned home but now. . . now Dustfinger was forever gone and Mo seemed as far away as if they were living in two different worlds again. What about Meggie? She was around, yes, but in her mind she was always with Farid. The magic of being in love for the first time. And she had been without a mother for 9 years. Why would she need one now? Now that she was almost a woman, almost old enough to have children of her own. That was not uncommon in this world.

_Roxane must feel even worse_, Resa reminded herself. Losing a husband for a second time so briefly after he had returned to her. The only person she had was Jehan, her son. And a friend in Resa.

But was a friend like Resa worth so much when Roxane didn't even know about the history she shared with Dustfinger? She should tell her.

Resa arrived at Roxane's house about noon and spotted her working in the garden with her nasty goose close to her. She got down from the horse and fastened it to the fence before entering the garden.

"Hello Roxane," she greeted her with and smile and got the same in return.

"Hey Resa, what brings you here?" she asked.

Resa wanted to tell her about how sick she feels but answered with the complete truth.

"A lot of things," she replied, "Enough to fill three books."

Roxane offered her to take a walk and Resa gladly accepted. As soon as they had taken a few steps she started talking. About the baby, the sickness, her husband's cold behaviour and finally. . . Dustfinger.

"Why did he never tell me the two of you were friends?" Roxane demanded to know.

"I don't know. I suppose it wasn't important as soon as he was back. We were two strangers in a strange world. I guess Dustfinger was looking for someone who shared his pain, someone who has been taken from his family. He saved my life when I was bitten by a snake and I taught him to read in return. I guess that's how we became friends."

"So that is why you cried so hard when he died. I thought you barely knew each other. I had no idea," Roxane paused. She seemed to consider her next question although it was clear that something was on her lips, "Did he love you?"

What a strange question. Resa had never really thought about it.

"He loved you, that's all I know," she replied.

_Don't tell her about your dreams! She is already jealous. _

"I'm having the worst of nightmares," she said.

"How so?" Roxane wanted to know.

"I dream that Dustfinger is in mortal danger. I can save him but I fail, no matter how hard I try. Then I dream of him dead. I see his dead face and it seems so real. I want these dreams to end but I can't get the imagine of his body out of my head."

Suddenly Resa noticed how inappropriate her words really were. Talking about another woman's dead husband like that. She shouldn't have started the subject at all. Roxane would do best to remember him like he had been to her.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't have told you that. It was. . ."

"It's alright," Roxane interrupted her, "You only said what you were thinking. And I don't think the dreams have something to do with Dustfinger anyway. You fear that the same thing that happened to him could happen to your own husband. It is normal."

Roxane turned around and started to walk back to her house. Resa followed her without saying anything.

"He still cares about you and the child, doesn't he? It's not like he is out there killing all the time?"

"I think so," Resa said, "He can still be lovely. Sometimes. Every night before we go to sleep he feels my belly. He doesn't want to miss the child's first move. He says it's gonna be a dwarf because it's growing so slowly." She looked down at her stomach and smiled.

"It's not moving yet?" Roxane asked her.

"No, not yet but that was the same with Meggie. She was such a gentle child. Never kicked me at all. I wonder what it's gonna be."

"A boy. Probably," Roxane said without smiling, "I have a feeling."

Roxane had no other herbs to give her, only the advice that she should rest a lot and so Resa returned to her home. She hoped that Mo had already finished the book for writing was the best of remedies for a broken heart.

Was her heart broken? Resa had never given it much thought but it felt like it. There was an empty space that Mo could no longer fill. Not even Meggie could, not even the unborn baby. Writing brought her closest to state she could almost call whole. Almost.


	3. Chapter 3

_Another one. . ._

**Chapter 3**

Resa was walking through the dungeons of a castle. She had never seen this place before but it seemed darker than the prisons she had been thrown into.

There was something at the end of the corridor, a cell, Resa could see it in the dim light. Strong iron bars held a prisoner that was probably very dangerous, guessing from the way he was guarded. _Then why am I going to see him?_ Resa wondered but she did it anyway. She approached the bars and spotted a man behind them. He was old, or maybe the dirt and the circumstances made him appear that way until he looked at her. Dustfinger!

"Dustfinger, whar are you doing here?" she asked but no sound came over the lips that formed those words. Resa tried to communicate with him through the sign language they had used after she had taught him to read the letters her hands were forming but his blank eyes stared at her and she knew he didn't understand a word she was trying to tell him. Then suddenly his eyes moved to her left and she stepped back to regard the writing that seemed to bleed out of the prison wall.

_Don't ask how. I died._

But he lived. Dustfinger lived! He wasn't dead yet although he would not survive this prison much longer. He had aged a lot during his imprisonment and his body was merely a skeleton.

_I'll come back. I'll save you this time, Dustfinger_, she thought.

And she did return to him, just like she had promised but there was no way to open his cell and even if she managed that – the guards would never let them pass.

Resa looked down at his quiet figure that just stared back into her eyes when all of a sudden he started coughing, choking uncontrollably. She stretched her hands through the bars, intending Dustfinger to hold them but he held his hand away from his body, a sign for her to back off. Resa stumbled backwards helplessly, shocked that Dustfinger wouldn't let her help him. Until she saw the writing on the wall. The bloody words that had decorated the wall the day before had changed. They now read:

_I'm dying._

And when Resa turned back to Dustfinger, he way lying on the ground. Dead.

Resa knew she was now really awake. The pain was real. The tears were real and they wouldn't stop running down her cheeks. She reached out for Mo but the bed beside her was empty again. No comforting arms. No warm body to embrace. Just emptiness and a blanket that was so cold as if it had never been touched. It didn't even smell of Mo.

Resa could see no more, so many tears were forcing their way through her eyes. She wanted them to stop but it was no use. She would have screamed all her pain out if it hadn't been for Meggie sleeping only next door. She gasped for breath. More tears came and it felt like it would never end.

"Come back," Resa whispered, "Come back."

She let herself fall over Mo's side of the bed, held his pillow but it brought her no comfort at all. It was a cold object and soon it would be wet from her tears. Tear stained.

No. Inkstained. That's what her life really was. Ruined by nothing but ink.

Ink. Writing. Paper doesn't blush.

Resa sat up in her bed and grabbed her pen and the new note book that was lying on her bedside table. She opened the first page and wanted to write everything down. All her anger, all her pain. She wanted to write the loneliness out of her heart but she could find only two words.

_Come back._

Eventually the tears Resa thought would never dry out did exactly that and left nothing but a headache and the bitter taste of salt on her lips. Exhausted she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep from which, she somehow hoped, Resa would never wake up again.

But the morning came and with it came Mo, tired and with more cuts and bruises than she could count. Would her pain stop if he was killed? No, that was a horrible thought to think.

_Maybe it would be better,_ the voice in her head whispered and Resa put both her hands over her ears like it was a way to stop the inner voice.

Although the night had been much shorter for Mo he got up first and let Resa sleep. He probably thought it was the pregnancy that made her tired and he knew that Roxane had told her to rest. Resa couldn't make herself get up. She was just lying there, awake, staring holes into space.

She didn't hear Meggie knock or enter the room, the first thing she heard was her daughter's voice saying words that seemed strangely familiar.

_Come back._

Resa rose immediately and looked at her daughter holding the book she had left open all night.

"You've noticed it, too," Meggie said but when her mother didn't answer, she went on, "That he leaves every night."

"Of course," she whispered, "But I hoped that you hadn't."

"Roxane is waiting for you outside," she explained.

Resa had no idea what Roxane wanted but she finally got up and invited her in for breakfast. They were alone for Mo and Meggie had already finished eating.

"What brings you here?" Resa wanted to know.

"I guess you could call it a secret. Yeah, a secret brings me here. One I'd like to share with you," there was no smile on her face, nor any hint that it would be something pleasant. That's why Resa suspected the worst when they started for a place she didn't know. It was not an easy journey, especially because she thought that women in her state weren't allowed to ride. When they had reached a cave, Roxane restrained the horse to walk slowly.

"Before we go in, you must promise me that you will tell no one about this place," Roxane insisted.

"Why?" Resa wanted to know.

"I'll explain later, first I need your word."

"Ok, I promise to tell no one and may lightning strike me if I do."

Roxane jumped off her horse, fastened it to the nearest tree and told Resa to do the same. As they were approaching the cave Roxane went on.

"This is where I brought Dustfinger after he died. I thought it unfair to keep him from you any longer since the two of you have been friends."

Resa's heart seemed to miss a beat. Was she about to see his corpse – again? The thought of it made her feel nauseous again for she had an abhorrence for the dead. They were nothing but empty shells, pretending to be a person someone once loved. That person, however, was long gone to a better place. At least they had said that in her world. How was it like here? Was it a good thing to be with the White Women?

"Farid tried to follow me here a few times. He still believes that he can bring him back and I swear that if he takes his body I'll kill him," Roxane said and Resa hoped that despite the certainty in her voice she was not serious.

They entered the cave through a small opening and the first thing Resa saw was candles burning everywhere. It was hard to spot anything else except the small lights.

"It seems the fire elves have put some kind of spell on the candles. I lighted them the first night and not a single candle has died yet."

While Resa still hoped she wouldn't have to look into Dustfinger's face Roxane went deeper into the cave until suddenly she stopped. Resa could see a huge stone table that had once been someone's last home. The body, however, had vanished.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thank you for your review, BloodlustedInk. I'm glad you like the story so far. But wait til the ending -puke- I don't like happy endings. . . :(_

**Chapter 4**

"I'll kill him," Roxane screamed furiously as she left the cage again.

"Wait, Roxane!" Resa called after her. It was hard to follow her for the rage strenghtened her legs, "You don't know that it was Farid. It could have been anyone who came across this place."

"But Farid is the only one with a reason. When I find him, I'll make him tell me where Dustfinger is and then I'll hang him myself at the gallows of Ombra."

"I'll come with you," Resa was determined and got on her horse.

"No. You must be careful. Think about the baby."

"I'm more worried about Farid's life right now."

Sometimes Resa wished they still had a car to go from one place to the other. It was a much more comfortable way to travel and the speed Roxane made her horse run seemed to much for Resa's old crock. Somehow she had hoped the guards would not even let her inside the city walls but they weren't at all immune against a woman's fury and let Roxane and her pass.

Finding Orpheus was not difficult either. One just had to look for the richest house of all and its owner was standing right in front of it, wearing clothes that suited a prince. He, however, turned his attention from the girl he was talking to (probably one of his mistresses) to Roxane and his white cheeks blushed. Resa thought she could read the dirty thoughts he was thinking on his forehead. She prayed for Roxane that he didn't get the idea to write her to love him. But then she remembered that even Orpheus thought he could bring Dustfinger back and he would not take away his wife. Even Orpheus wouldn't dare.

"Where is the boy?" Roxane demanded to know.

"What boy? I have so many servants." How could such a sweet voice say such arrogant words?

"Farid, you oaf, who else?"

Orpheus went even redder at the insult but then he turned back to the girl who hurried into the house and came out only a few seconds later, accompanied by Farid.

Roxane jumped off her horse, grabbed Farid's shoulders and pushed him to the wall.

"Where is Dustfinger?" she screamed.

The boy looked at her, his eyes blank, as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

"How should I know? You never told me," he tried to defend himself.

"Don't try to fool me. You follow me and found the place where I hid him and you stole his corpse because you still think he will come back, but he is dead. DEAD," Roxane's voice was still strong, despite the tears in her eyes.

"Dustfinger's corpse is gone?" Orpheus asked in disbelief.

Roxane let go of Farid and turned to Orpheus, looking at him as if her gaze could burn his skin.

"We can still help him, right? Even if we don't know where he is," Farid asked Orpheus.

Roxane's hand was faster back at Farid's throat that he had thought and now her look was burning him.

"Don't pretend, boy. I knew you would only bring him bad luck. I've known it the moment I saw you."

"Roxane!" That was Resa's voice. She was standing next to her now, her hand touching Roxane's shoulder. "He doesn't know where Dustfinger is. It wasn't him."

Yes, Resa was right and Roxane knew it. It was not Farid that had stolen Dustfinger's body. It was not Orpheus.

"Maybe it was the Black Prince, to bury him in a real grave next to the others," Resa said, although she didn't believe it. She also had no idea who would do such a thing.

"No," Roxane shook her head and wiped away the tears with her sleeve, "He would not give his best friend an ordinary grave. And he would have asked me."

Resa brought Roxane home before continuing to her own house. She didn't really want to leave her friend, especially since Roxane's pain over the loss of Dustfinger's corpse overshadowed her own. But when they returned to the farm, they found no Jehan in the garden where he was supposed to work, and the door Roxane was sure she had told her son to close all the time stood open.

"Bandits?" Resa asked.

"No, bandits that are not under the Black Prince or soldiers would leave traces. And the goose. They would have killed her when she had attacked them. No, whoever is in my house is a friend."

After Roxane got off the horse Resa did the same and followed her to the house. When they were only a few steps away a figure emerged from the shadows inside. It was that of a man and Resa was sure she recognized him before Roxane.

Dustfinger broke into a run and stopped only right before Roxane, grinning from ear to ear. Roxane couldn't smile yet. How did she know it was not a trick? A daydream? She had lost him too many times to believe that he was really back now.

"Is it really you?" she asked.

Dustfinger nodded and took her hand.

"Yes, it's me. I heard a voice asking me to come back but I couldn't. Until this morning. I woke up in a cave and came here. I think I scared Jehan but he will come back, I'm sure."

"Dustfinger," Roxane whispered and she threw her arms around him, hugging him so tight that he must have thought she would never let him go again. Dustfinger, too, put his arms around her but over her shoulder his eyes focused Resa. The smile on his face had vanished and she could read it in his gaze: It was her call that he had heard and Meggie's voice that brought him back. And Resa understood that Dustfinger knew it too.


	5. Chapter 5

_The show must go on. . ._

**Chapter 5**

"He is back!" Resa screamed when she entered her house, "Dustfinger is back."

Although she knew better Resa told Mo and Meggie the story about his fantastical return to his beloved Roxane and both of them joined the happiness without knowing that Resa's joy was shadowed by confusion. They had no idea that is was because of her that Dustfinger was once again among the living. That it was her call she had originally meant for Mo (was it really meant for Mo? She couldn't remember) that had made Dustfinger want to return.

Dustfinger knew about it, Resa was sure. She had seen it in his eyes. What would he read into it?

Suddenly Resa felt a pain in her stomach, like a spear piercing her through. She would have thought it was the child, only it didn't move yet.

"Are you alright, honey?" Mo asked.

_Honey_. Resa felt like laughing. The times he had called her _honey_ were long past. She expected him to call her by a bird's name any day.

"It's nothing. I think it's just been an exhausting day. I should rest," Resa said and went into the bedroom. Meggie brought her a cup of warm milk a few minutes later and when she was alone again, Resa pulled out the note book. She had to hide it more carefully from now on for the words she was about to write into it were never to be read by anyone except her. Not Meggie and especially not Mo.

Evening came quickly and Mo lay down next to her, kissing her goodnight and putting out the candle flame on her bedside table. Tonight it was Resa to turn her back at Mo. She could no longer bear to see him leave and suddenly the jealousy she had regarded the night with turned to anger.

Voices woke her up in the morning. Excited voices in their kitchen and it was not only Meggie's and Mo's. There was also another voice that sounded strangely familiar.

Resa got up, put on the dress she had made a while ago when her belly had started to swell. She was surprised that it still fit her, the child really didn't grow that fast.

She went into the kitchen and there he was – Dustfinger, sitting at the kitchen table with Meggie and Mo. Her husband got up, kissed her on the forehead, a thing he surely wouldn't have done if they had been alone and said: "I'm going into the stable now."

The stable. That's where Mo continued to make books. It was still his craft and he loved it but somehow Resa wondered if he didn't enjoy killing more than binding books.

"Hey Dustfinger," she greeted him with a slight smile and so did he. She sat down at the table next to Meggie who jumped up immediately.

"Can I go help Mo or do you need anything?"

Resa would've loved her daughter to stay with her. Probably Dustfinger wouldn't talk to her about all the things she did not want to hear in front of Meggie but still she allowed her daughter to follow Mo.

"I see you're with child," Dustfinger noticed.

Resa nodded. "Mo is really fussed over the baby."

Dustfinger shrugged. "No."

"No?" she stared at him in disbelief.

"The only thing he's interested in is playing the Bluejay. Sometimes it's books, sometimes his wife and daughter or his unborn child. But the Bluejay is a bandit who cares about doing what bandits do: killing," Dustfinger said coldly.

It was the words she had felt in her heart but she had never dared to think them.

"Going back into your own story is the only thing that could bring your husband back but I don't think one of you wants to leave this place."

Dustfinger took her hand, a very inappropriate gesture regarding the topic they were discussing.

"You are unhappy, Resa," he said seriously.

She gave him a bitter laugh. He was so right.

"Do something, anything that could make you happier."

Resa thought that Dustfinger would kiss her any moment, so close was he to her face but then suddenly he jumped up.

"I have to go. Farid will be happy I'm back."

Dustfinger didn't go to say goodbye to Mo and Meggie but headed straight for Ombra. He had said no word about her wanting him back. But he knew that it had been her voice.

Resa stood in the doorway and watched him disappear behind the yellow fields, trying to tell herself that time would give her all the answers she longed for.

But in one thing he had been right. She was not happy and she had to do something to change that. That is why Resa waited for the night to come, for the moment Mo would get up as quietly as possible and sneak out of their bedroom.

"Don't," she whispered when Mo was just about to get into his pants.

"What?" he turned around to face Resa who was now sitting in her bed.

"Don't go, please."

"I have to. They're calling me," Mo said and headed for the door.

"You might not fear death, but I do. I need you, Mo. Who would take care if this family if you left us forever?"

Mo gave her a smile. It was a false one, pretending that everything was alright. He went back to her and kissed her stomach.

"Our son will take care of you. And you could still go back to Elinor where you won't need any protection."

And with that he left. As if Resa would leave this world as long as Mo was here. How could he even think about it?

Suddenly she felt the same pain in her stomach, the pain she had already experienced the day before but it got worse. Resa screamed out in agony but Mo was already too far gone to hear her cries.


	6. Chapter 6

_And another one. I'm sorry if you find some typos in it. . . my dad was talking to me while I was trying to find mistakes._

**Chapter 6**

When Mo returned at daybreak his house was anything but deserted. Two horses were standing in front of the fence and he already feared it would be soldiers that had found out about the Bluejay's hiding place until he noticed that one of them was their own. Why was it not in the stable where it belonged? And who owned the other horse?

Meggie opened the door the moment he wanted to grab the doorknob. She took him by the hand and lead him through the kitchen, where Dustfinger was sitting, into the bedroom that seemed too crowded with four people. Resa was lying in her bed, her head in Roxane's lap and she was patting his wife's head. Meggie went back into the kitchen. She obviously had cried. She had the same red eyes like all the others, except for Dustfinger, who looked simply angry.

Mo's eyes went from Resa, who seemed now too exhausted to cry, to a bundle that was lying at her feet.

"Stillborn," Roxane explained in a low voice.

"What?" Mo asked, he looked like he couldn't believe it.

"In fact, it was long dead. Sometimes the mother's distress can cause the baby to simply waste away in the her belly."

"You should have been more careful. I told you this world. . ." Mo wanted to sit down next to Resa but Roxane wouldn't make way.

"That is not the time for accusations, Bluejay. Resa needs to rest. If you want to do something useful get rid of the baby," Roxane said, her voice as cold as ice.

Mo hesitated to grab the bundle that wrapped his dead child. He had taken so many lives already, he had even killed lads that weren't much older than Meggie. But holding one's own dead child was a difference. Still, he took it and wanted to bring it outside to find a place to bury it.

"Just in case you're interested: it was a boy," Roxane called after him.

Mo wanted to put a name on the grave but Resa was strictly against it. She thought it was no use naming a dead thing that lived only a few months. Surely Roxane had talked that into her.

When he came back inside the first thing he met was Dustfinger's hateful eyes. Where did that hatred come from? And why was he here at all?

"All those years you tried to get your wife back and ever since you reached that goal you've been treating her like dirt," Dustfinger whispered in Mo's ear as soon as Meggie had left the kitchen.

"That is nothing of your concern," Mo hissed, "and for your information: We were happy until your damn story sucked us in."

"I'm just saying. If she was my wife I would know how to honor her. I would show her my love by being with her, not by playing the hero when she already knows you only do it because you enjoy killing."

Mo seized Dustfinger's jacket. "She is not _your_ wife."

"And she won't be yours much longer."

The answer to that was Mo's fist hitting Dustfinger's face who fell to the ground. Resa jumped out of her bed and ran into the kitchen. She hadn't listened to the conversation but what she had seen was enough.

"Stop it," she said.

"You can punch me all you want. My face is already scarred, a few more don't matter."

"A pleasure," Mo anwered grinning and wanted to hit Dustfinger again but Resa's voice held him back.

"No! I won't have the two of you fight over my dead baby."

The days passed slowly. Roxane had told Resa to stay in bed and she would personally see to it. It was hard for her to convince Dustfinger to go home but after the fight between him and Mo it would be the best solution. Roxane stayed for a few days to keep Resa company. She lay next to her at night while both of them heard Mo leave with the other bandits.

The days she spent with Roxane did her good. Resa grew stronger every day and even regained her spirit a little, something she hadn't been able to for a long time. The loss of her child still weighed heavy on her but it was easier with a friend who had suffered the same fate and knew what helped when sadness overcame her again.

But what about Mo? Resa saw less of him every day and somehow it seemed that the wound in her heart had finally began to mend. Thanks to Meggie, wo did everything for her mother. Thanks to Roxane, who spent day and night with her best friend and thanks to Dustfinger, who came to see them every day. On the evening of the 7th day Dustfinger took Roxane home with him but she had promised that Resa could visit her any time and that she would come to her every third day.

Resa had expected Mo to move back into their bedroom as soon as Roxane was gone but he didn't. After dinner he went straight to the stables where he had slept since.

"I just wanted to tell you that I won't go out tonight," he said that evening.

Resa nodded. Should she ask why?

"Why?" Meggie asked the question for her.

"I have to go to a village not too far from here to sell a few books with poems Fenoglio had stolen from the other world. We have to live off something and there's this merchant who sells books to princes and kings for much more than he gives us."

It was not even noon when two figures emerged from the fields and soon Resa recognized Dustfinger und Farid. She called her daughter and Meggie, happy to see Farid again, ran off with him. Dustfinger, however, invited Resa for a walk.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Better. Thanks to Meggie and Roxane. . . and you." Resa smiled and Dustfinger saw it was real.

"Mo has gone to some merchant to sell books," she explained, "Somehow I feel even better when he's not around."

Resa paused for a moment. "Why did he beat you the other night?"

She felt the skin around his left eye with her hand but the bruise had almost faded away completely. When she withdrew her hand, he took it and held it tight, but gentle. Resa twitched. She was not used to that kind of contact any more but it felt good.

"Because I told him the truth," Dustfinger said simply while he admired Resa's hand, "I said that if you were my wife I would treat you with the respect, the love you deserve."

Resa wanted to remove her hand from his grip but he wouldn't let it go.

"You may fool Silvertongue and your daughter. Maybe even Roxane. But I know who called me back from the dead. That was your voice and it doesn't matter that your daughter read the words. I heard _you_."

Dustfinger looked around as if he was trying to find something and when he realized that there was no one else around he bent down to kiss Resa.


	7. Chapter 7

_Thanks for the review :) Enjoy the chapter. One is still left._

**Chapter 7**

So Dustfinger did love her. He had loved her all along. But that did not make it better. He was married and so was she. And hadn't he always talked about how much he wanted to return to his family? There were a dozen reasons why they couldn't be together but it didn't kill the butterflies in her stomach. It didn't make the hope go away that maybe one day they could be together.

_What a silly thought!_, Resa told herself off. Be with Dustfinger! He belonged to Roxane, that was how Fenoglio had written it. She had to talk to him. Explain to him that it was not possible.

Resa could hear Mo get on his horse and ride off to another fight. Maybe he wasn't even with the others every night. He could just as well have a girlfriend elsewhere.

It wouldn't be the first time. Resa had found pictures in a shabby photo album. It must have been 3 or 4 years after she had been sucked into Inkheart. But the fact that the picture hadn't been taken good care of told her that those girls had not meant very much to him.

But what about Dustfinger? He had saved her life. Resa had taught him to read. They have always been very fond of each other. Of course, Dustfinger's actions haven't always been correct. It was not right of him to tell her nothing about Mo when he knew him or Mo nothing about her when he had seen a picture of Resa in his house. It was odd but Resa could even understand that. She was all he had. And he was all she had for a very long time.

Resa had to talk to him and that was why she saddled the horse and rode to where Dustfinger and Roxane lived. She also had a good excuse to see him alone: He had never shown her how he could play with the fire in this world. And to be honest, she was really curious about that also.

But Resa didn't even need an excuse for Roxane and Jehan were in Ombra, buying herbs and seeds.

"How long do we have?" Resa asked.

"They'll take a while."

Resa started walking and Dustfinger followed her into the fields.

"It can't work. I feel like some teenager in love, about to do a very stupid thing. And it is kind of stupid, the thought of us being together," she said.

Dustfinger caught her and pressed another kiss on her lips. Resa didn't know why she couldn't resist, she just let it happen.

"You belong to Roxane, that is how Fenoglio wrote it and that's how it has to be. What would she do without you?"

"I was gone for 10 years and she did fine without me. She'll live. But you. . . I cannot watch you waste away like that."

"Dustfinger!" Resa didn't know what to say. She was not used to someone so eargerly trying to win her heart. She was not used to how it felt to be loved by someone anymore.

"Resa, do you love me?" Dustfinger asked.

_What a question!_ "Yes, I do."

"And do you love Silvertongue?"

That question was not so easy to answer. He should have asked it a few months ago, way back then the answer would have been clear. But now. Yes, she loved Mo.

"Do you love the Bluejay?" Dustfinger asked again.

No, Resa had been wrong. The answer was clear. Crystal clear. Her beloved Mo was no longer. It was the Bluejay now.

"No, I guess I don't."

Dustfinger smiled and embraced her carefully.

"Then we'll make it work," he whispered.

"But Roxane. . . and Meggie. What about her?" Resa wanted to know.

Dustfinger smiled again and asked: "Do you trust me?"

And Resa nodded.

Dustfinger took her hands, got down on his knees and pulled her into the field. She lay down next to him and he covered her face in kisses.

"Let me make you happy, Resa. That's all I want – making you happy again," he said and kissed her again, "And don't be afraid. I have a plan."


	8. Chapter 8

_Finished XD I hope you liked it._

**Chapter 8**

It was barely morning when Resa heard a knock on her window. She got up and saw Dustfinger, looking tired but happy, telling her to come out. She put on her dress and sneaked out of the house, afraid to wake Meggie up.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Dustfinger.

He held up a sheet of paper and smiled. "That is going to put everything right. I have been working all night on it. That writing is the only way we can be together without hurting anyone."

Resa looked at him in disbelief.

"You wrote that?" she asked, "But doesn't it have to be written by a writer?"

"No, why? Orpheus is no writer, he is not even part of the story. But I am and why shouldn't it work?"

Resa took the sheet of paper and read it. And read it again. After a while she looked back at Dustfinger, smiling too.

"That is perfect. But. . ." her smile faded, "Mo will never read that and Meggie neither."

Dustfinger pointed to the back of the page.

"But Orpheus will because I am offering him something he most certainly wants to have."

Resa read on and started laughing.

"That is very good," she finally said.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Orpheus was not at all happy to be woken up so early in the morning until Dustfinger presented him a sheet of paper, telling him to read it.

At first Orpheus refused. . . until he started reading the second page. Dustfinger was right. He was offering Orpheus something he wanted to have and that is why he accepted and started reading:

_The Inkworld had become a chaotic place: wars were raging, people were treated badly and there were only few that were really happy. It was about time someone brought order back into this world. It was not the Silver Prince, it was not the Bluejay. No, it was the fire juggler Dustfinger who had fallen in love with the Bluejay's wife. There was no way for them to be together, since they were both married until Dustfinger had an idea. He used the magic of words and a silvertongue's voice to make come true what he wished for._

_From that day on Dustfinger lived in the Bluejay's house, together with his wife Resa, and her daughter who happily accepted Dustfinger as a friend, if not as a father. And they took in a young boy who could play with the fire almost as well as Dustfinger himself. They became a happy family and one day the boy and girl would found their own, for they have always loved each other._

_Everyone who expected Dustfinger's wife Roxane to be left alone and heartbroken was very much mistaken. She was surrounded by many men who admired her beauty and spirit and she picked the best, one that would love her until the end of days and although she would never forget Dustfinger, like he would never forget her, she learned to love him back._

_The Bluejay and the Black Prince soon lead a strong army of bandits with which they could defeat the occupying force in Ombra and peace returned to the city. They elected a new leader, one that would never be injust and always kind to his people. They chose a stranger with glasses and a voice of honey who had become a famous merchant to be their new prince. _

_The Silver Prince, however, died soon after his forces had been driven out of Ombra. The book that had promised him eternal life had fallen into a million pieces because it was prepared to do so._

_What became of the Bluejay? Only he and maybe his beloved daughter knows. They say he took a wife somewhere far away and lived happily ever after but almost every night he returned to his daughter just to see her. _

_And even the Inkweaver Fenoglio regained his spirit. Once Ombra was free he started writing again, becautiful words that enchanted everyone. He stayed with Minerva, who had lost her husband in the battle. _

_Yes, Ombra had once again become a peaceful place. A place in which young boys and girls loved to grow up. A place people went to when they were looking for happiness. Some even said it was a magical place where words had more meaning than they had anywhere else._


End file.
